Into the Light
by MadSparrow
Summary: The Gringott's dragon knows only pain and fear. Written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Round Four. (Rated T to be safe)


QLFC – Round 4: Creature Comforts (Tutshill Tornadoes – Chaser 3)

Task: Write from the point of view of a creature. (dragon)

Word Count: 902 (excluding a/n)

Optional Prompts: (word) soul, (word) obliterate, (dialogue) "Do you really need to do that?"

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I jerk suddenly awake as the sound of low voices approaches my prison. Tethered as I am, I can do little else but drag myself upright, my limbs aching and my wings scraping painfully against the rough ceiling in the cramped space. Squinting harshly through the gloom, I strain to catch a glimpse of the anticipated invaders, but to no avail. Many long years chained in this cave has reduced my capacity for sight to nearly non-existent. Instead, I have had to learn to rely on my other senses for survival. I raise my head as I catch a familiar, loathed scent.

 _Goblin._ My lip curls as I recognise the harsh, unclean odour that fills me with both disgust and fear. Have the cowards come to inflict more anguish? I shudder. The scent of Goblins is not a smell that I have come to appreciate. It is a smell I have come to associate with pain.

But there is another scent too…something softer, less tainted.

 _Humans_. More than one, I realise, as I catch subtle differences between the various smells. _Why have they come? Why will they not leave me in peace?_

A roar builds in my chest, fire blasting forth in a warning as I stand up on my hind legs. I am rewarded with the sound of panicked yelling as they leap back, trying to stay out of my reach. I hear the sound of garbled voices, the language unintelligible to me before it all goes quiet for a long moment.

Then, suddenly, my moment of triumph is over. It has come. The clacking. The pain will surely follow. I have to get away, away from that dreaded noise.

Click-clack, click-clack, click-clack.

I cannot help the harsh, terrified whimper that claws its way out of my snout, as my wings curl protectively around my feeble body and my rear collides hard with the jagged rocks of the wall as I back away.

I barely notice the group cautiously edging their way around me, consumed as I am in a haze of remembered pain and fear. However, I am roused by the sound of more distant shouting, once against approaching my prison. I cannot understand the incomprehensible human words, but the tone of the voices is all too clear. Anger.

The chain scrapes harshly along the rocky floor as I shift restlessly. Anger usually means more pain.

There are more perplexing human words, these are laced with panic and sound from behind me. The group from before are returning. I feel a blast of something like a breeze brush against my leg, tickling it, as more jumbled language sounds. It takes me a long moment to realise the release of pressure, the sudden lightness around my ankle is not imagined. It takes an even longer moment to realise what this means.

The chains are off.

I can scarcely believe it, hope and determination rising within me.

I turn towards the scent of what I presume to be a large group of approaching goblins _. Goblins._ The foul creatures who have kept me here, who made me their prisoner. I want them to share in my pain, to experience my terror. I want to obliterate them.

I rear upwards with a violent spread of my wings, a magnificent roar bursting out of me as my fiery rage is unleashed upon my captors.

I can hear their anguished screams, smell their burning skin. And yet, I do not feel much satisfaction. I do not feel powerful. I still feel like a prisoner. I have to get out.

I turn my attention upwards instead, to the tunnel that has taunted me with an exit since the hated day that I was brought here. Distantly I am aware of the humans, the ones with the innocent scent, climbing up my back, clinging desperately to my scales. One of them clutches too hard and I feel a couple of flaky scales flutter free. _Do you really need to do that, human?_

I choose to ignore them for now, instead, I focus on climbing upwards, to escape this dark cave once and for all. It's slow going. I claw desperately at the rocks, my fiery breath attempting to carve out an exit. Chunks of rock fall around me as the humans join in, aiding my escape. It feels like an eternity passes as I desperately climb to freedom.

Freedom. My heart fills with hope as daylight starts to appear through the cracks above me. With an almighty roar, I burst upwards through the last of the stone, leaving the darkness behind me.

When I reach the top, it hurts. The light of the sun is like fire, even to my near-blinded eyes. But it is the best feeling I have felt in a very long time. And the wind across my scales, the fresh, clean air filling my lungs is like heaven. There is a moment where I simply _breathe,_ revelling in how it feels to be free, to be alive. I don't linger too long, however. My throat burns with thirst and I realise that I must find water. My determination to get as far away from here wins out, as I pick a direction and simply start to fly.

My soul sings as my wings extend fully for the first time in decades. I soar upwards, into the light, leaving the darkness of my prison behind me forever.


End file.
